It was supposed to be hot and sunny Tuesday, the kind of weather that makes thirsty folks pull over when they see an enterprising bunch of kids with cool drinks for sale at roadside stands. Instead the day broke cloudy, muggy and occasionally leaky, but not enough to dampen the spirits of the summer school students at Monroe Elementary. They opened for business right on schedule at 8:30 A.M. and started hawking lemonade to raise money for Heifer International. In a roundabout way they are doing their part to help the poor in third world countries turn their lemony lives into first lemonade and then into cows, chickens, sheep, rabbits, bees and trees.

Heifer International began its work in 1944 and operates on the principle that giving hungry people a loaf of bread feeds them for a day but teaching them to bake feeds them for a lifetime. Donations are used to provide them with impregnated cows whose calves are paid forward to neighboring villagers or bees whose hives produce honey that’s imperishable.“Did you know that honey lasts forever?” beamed 5th grader Yanas Morgan to one of the group’s satisfied customers. He and the rest of the natural born, irresistible sales staff had already reaped more than a hundred dollars by 9:30, the uncooperative weather notwithstanding.See full story...